


This Kiss

by LittleSixx



Series: Bean OTP Kiss Challenge [4]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Gay Blaise Zabini, Gay Dean Thomas, Kissing, M/M, POV Blaise Zabini, Post-Hogwarts
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-26
Updated: 2020-10-26
Packaged: 2021-03-09 00:08:52
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,232
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27205018
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LittleSixx/pseuds/LittleSixx
Summary: "I dare you to kiss the next man who walks through the door."
Relationships: Dean Thomas/Blaise Zabini
Series: Bean OTP Kiss Challenge [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1896496
Comments: 8
Kudos: 34





	This Kiss

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Art3misiA](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Art3misiA/gifts).



> Written for the "20 Day OTP Kiss Challenge." Today's prompt was "truth or dare" and I took a bit of leeway with it. Y'all know I am a sucker for a Bean meet-cute. The M rating is for mature language only.

“Blaise can get any man he wants.”

His friends were always overconfident in his ability to land a date. Draco, Bastien, and Theo were crowded around the end of the bar at The Sugar Quill, a nightclub so exclusive the cover charge alone was a week’s wages for the average Ministry employee. 

Blaise looked around the nightclub and felt old. Not in age, really, but in his bones. He was ready to make a life with someone, but the bachelor lifestyle kept him firmly within its hold. His mother had left him a lot of money, but not much else. Least of all the ability to love someone. The club was dimly-lit with fairy lights floating over the crowd, casting coloured shadows across the sea of faces. The band was a popular one whose name he couldn’t remember. He had heard a few of their songs on the radio but had no interest in joining the mass of gyrating bodies on the dancefloor.

Theo, more than three drinks in, said, “I still think he’s part-Siren.”

“I will neither confirm nor deny.”

“See, not denying is really confirming, isn’t it?”

Draco gingerly took the glass from Theo’s hand before he started gesticulating emphatically. 

“I’ve seen him walk up to a bloke, say absolutely nothing, then get him to walk out the door and back to his flat.”

Blaise frowned.

“That was one time and I had been with him before. Sometimes you do not need to speak for people to understand what you want.”

“Right, Silent But Sexy,” Bastien quipped, “can’t believe that shit works.”

Blaise shrugged. It had never been difficult for him to pick up men, but he hadn’t been able to pick up the  _ right _ men. The right  _ man.  _ Draco placed a hand on his shoulder. 

“Just because you two have wives does not mean you get to live vicariously through Blaise.” 

“Well you won’t tell us anything about your secret girlfriend.” When Draco didn’t respond, Bastien guessed, “Boyfriend?”

“Still not telling you anything,” replied Draco. 

It was Hermione Granger. Blaise knew because Ginny had seen Draco sneaking out of Hermione’s house when she popped by one morning. His restraint was impressive. Blaise knew if Draco had his way, he’d be shouting from every rooftop in London that he was dating Hermione. Blaise longed to have someone he cared for that much, but no one in his world had ever fit that description.

“Let’s move on from Blaise’s love life. How’s Padma?”

“She’s—”

“Nope,” Theo insisted, shaking his head, “I know I’m right. He can get any man he wants, and he should prove it.”

“Why would I do that?” asked Blaise. He was so tired, far more tired than he had reason to be. Exhaustion that made everything twice as difficult for no observable reason. “Just because rejection is not a usual feature in my life—”

Theo cut him off.

“I dare you to kiss the next man who walks through the door. You do it, and we’ll shut up about it forever.”

All of them turned simultaneously to stare at the front door, willing it to open. Blaise stared at it, wishing for them to shut up. Being able to shag whomever he wanted was a handy skill at twenty-five, but at thirty-two it was tiresome. He sighed heavily and replied,

“Consider it done.”

It was a solid twenty seconds before the door opened again. Through the darkness, Blaise could make out red hair and a familiar silhouette.

“Ginny is here!” He placed his glass, still half-full, on the bar. “I need to say hello.”

“Great,” Bastien replied, “then you can snog her friend.”

“What?”

Bastien nodded toward the door where a very tall man was making his way inside, right behind Ginny. 

“That is Dean Thomas and his broom flies in your direction.” He clapped Blaise on the back and said, “Go get him.”

One of the fairy lights dipped low enough to cast light on the man’s face and Blaise’s heart dropped into his stomach. Blaise glanced down quickly, before looking up to find the stranger looking back at him. That gaze hollowed him out and left him feeling empty, as if he was missing something. A depth that could only be reached by the stranger who had just walked through the door. Blaise caught a glimpse of a blush as the man turned away, an embarrassed smile crossing his face.

“Blaise?” asked Draco. “Blaise, are you okay?”

“I ... I have no idea.” He turned to look at Draco and said, “My hands are sweating. Why the hell are my hands sweating?”

Draco frowned and Bastien grinned from ear-to-ear. He wondered, 

“Are you nervous?”

Blaise insisted, “I do not get nervous.”

“But you’re blushing,” Draco teased. “You see him for two seconds and you’re blushing like a twelve-year-old.”

Theo added, “Just go kiss him!”

_ Just go kiss him. _

As if it was not agonizing enough, wondering whether anyone could ever fall in love with him. How much of his appeal was Blaise, and how much was “that Siren thing?” His friends did not mean to be negative, and did not know they were hitting a sore spot for him. It was not something he discussed, because the answers to those questions died with his mother. 

“Dean Thomas,” Blaise wondered, “why is that name familiar to me?”

“Because he was in our year at school?” offered Theo. 

“Oh, God, no!” Blaise cringed. “Do you think he remembers my hair from fourth year?”

“I really don’t think it matters much.”

“Why?”

“Because he’s walking over here.”

Blaise shifted his feet; his entire world had tilted a bit. Anxiety hung over him like a dark cloud. Blaise took another deep breath and reminded himself to stay centred. He turned to Draco and mumbled,

“I feel a bit ill.”

Without another word, Draco grabbed Bastien and Theo by their elbows and hauled them to the other end of the bar. Blaise exhaled and kicked back the remnants of his Strongbow. He slammed the glass on the bar just as a voice sounded from behind him.

“What a nice surprise to see you here.”

Blaise heard the smile in Ginny’s voice even before he turned around. His eyes, however, never quite made it to her. Standing right in front of Blaise was a man a few inches taller with tight black curls and a nervous smile that made Blaise’s stomach do a weird flip. He managed to say,

“Nice to see you, Ginny.”

“I’m over here,” she replied.

“Apologies, I was a bit distracted.” He took a deep breath and fell back into his usual confidence. He looked at her and said, “Perhaps you could introduce me to your friend?”

Ginny grinned so wide Blaise thought her face might break from the effort. Had this been a planned effort? He turned to glance at his friends down the bar to see Theo and Bastien high-fiving. He rolled his eyes and supposed he should have known better when they insisted on going out  _ tonight.  _ Ginny gestured to Blaise and said,

“This is Blaise Zabini, who owns the best restaurants in England and occasionally finds himself in the VIP box at Harpies games.” Ginny moved to stand at Blaise’s side. “This is Dean, my  _ very single _ friend.” She walked off and disappeared into the crowd without another word. 

Dean closed his eyes and laughed.

“Why do I get the feeling we’ve been set up?”

Blaise leaned back and smiled. The bartender gave him another glass of Strongbow and Blaise laid down a Sickle for a tip. He waved to the trio at the end of the bar, then flashed them a middle-finger salute before returning his attention to Dean Thomas.

“We have been. Though, I will admit, this is the cleverest they have ever been about it. If I may ask, what does Ginny mean by ‘very single?’”

The smile vanished immediately from Dean’s face. He stuffed his hands in his pockets and admitted,

“It’s been about a year since I’ve dated anyone.”

“Really?” 

“I’d just gotten out of a serious relationship. Didn’t feel like hopping back into things just after having my heart broken.” Dean paused to reconsider. “More like he ripped my heart out of my chest and stomped on it. Still a bit bruised.”

“Sounds tragic. How long were you together?”

“Eight years.”

Blaise’s eyes nearly popped out of his head as he choked on a sip of Strongbow. He coughed then repeated,

“Eight years?!”

Dean nodded.

“Why did it end?” Blaise quickly added, “If you don’t mind me asking.”

“I loved him more than he loved me.”

“I do not believe I have had a relationship last eight months. I cannot imagine eight years.”

“We were best mates for, what, nine years or so before we started dating. Learning to live without him has been difficult, like I’d forgotten who I was as an individual. It was always ‘Dean and Seamus,’ but mostly ‘Seamus and Dean,’ because he is a rather explosive person and I was there to sweep up the mess.”

Blaise frowned, “I remember that much.”

“Well, we split a year ago and I finally let Ginny drag me out for some fun because the past year has been ...” Dean took a moment to settle on a word. “Fucked.”

“Oh, really?” Blaise asked with a chuckle.

“Not in the fun way.” Dean blushed. “I was terrified, actually, of coming out tonight.”

“I am glad you did.”

Dean looked down at the ground as a look of hesitation crossed his face. Blaise wondered what that could be about, but supposed Dean had already told him. Eight years in a committed relationship, and a year of nothing afterward? He must be terrified to go out, let alone walk right into a setup with a man he had little memory of from school. 

Normally, this would be the point where Blaise walked away. He never wasted time with men who were less than certain, but this felt different. Whatever was about to happen with Dean, and Blaise was not sure what it was, he wanted it. He needed a change of subject.

“What do you do?”

“For work?”

Blaise nodded.

“I write children’s books.” Dean kicked at the floor with the toe of his shoe. “I love kids. Sort of thought I’d be a dad one day, but Seamus ... Didn’t really ... He, um. Well.” Dean’s eyes went wide as he realized what he said. “That was too much information.”

“No.”

“I feel like I am mucking this up rather terribly.”

Blaise insisted, “Not at all.”

“I am so out of practice.”

“It is endearing.”

“Endearing isn’t as close to sexy as I’d like.”

Dean Thomas was nervous, it was clear on his face, but Blaise was anxious as hell. His heart beat in double-time, his hands were still a bit sweaty, and the second glass of Strongbow did nothing to calm his stomach. Something in the way Dean held himself made him seem like much more than a man still grieving a relationship. He was tall and his eyes crinkled on the outside when he smiled. There was an ease about him, a confidence muted by his discomfort with the situation. Blaise could not turn on his usual charm, not in the face of such earnest sincerity. The only thing to do was reflect it back.

“Would you like to go out with me? On a date that has not been concocted by my ridiculous friends.”

“You’re not disappointed?” asked Dean. “I mean, we can continue, if you like.”

“My friends are down there,” Blaise nodded toward the end of the bar, “and Ginny is likely watching us from a corner. I like you enough that I would hope we could have a real first date.”

Dean swallowed thickly and admitted, “I’d like that.”

“Excellent.” Blaise paused. “Before you go, may I ask a favour of you?”

“Of course.”

“Shortly before you arrived, my friend Theo dared me to snog the next bloke who walked through the door. Somehow, the next man through the door was you.”

“Quite the coincidence.” There was an amused glint in Dean’s eyes. “How are you feeling about that?”

“Nervous beyond measure.”

“Really?” Dean asked, eyebrows raised. “ _ You _ are nervous about kissing  _ me _ ?”

“Yes, however, I am not the sort of man who ducks out on a challenge.”

“I have a solution.”

Blaise perked up and sat his glass on the bar behind him. He checked over his left shoulder to ensure Theo, Bastien, and Draco were watching. They were; Bastien was tossing popcorn into his mouth as Draco winked over at Blaise. He turned back to Dean and said,

“Enlighten me.”

Dean grabbed the lapels of Blaise’s jacket and pulled him close so there was almost no space between them. Before he realized what was happening, Dean kissed Blaise, whose eyes immediately fell closed. It was feather-light, as if the whole thing was a dream and Dean would disappear the moment Blaise opened his eyes again. Dean pulled back the slightest bit and whisper-shouted,

“Figured it would be easier if I kissed you instead.”

Blaise tentatively pressed his fingertips against his lips in awe. He looked up and Dean was still there, cheeks flushed and a smile playing its way across his face. 

“Would you mind if I did it again?”

“Not at all.”

**Author's Note:**

> I am so grateful y'all have hopped aboard the Bean ship. Thank you for reading.


End file.
